Day 3 of our trek. We take it easy -hangover from last nite, good gracious!- and start lazily our day. Moreover, this is going to be our first day of snow and as we learned from villagers and trekkers on our way, there have been quite a few accidents: we ran into folks with a broken arm or leg, in the latter case, someone else was carrying the guy on the back in what looked like a bamboo basket.

It´s sunny, bright and peaceful...we were the only foreigners staying in Banthanti these days. Time to do the laundry! Brrrr, water is freezing cold...ran into the kitchen and chat with Kanji and Aka (or is it Neka? Not sure yet how to pronounce his name) next to the fire. So, Devindhra just woke up, half-naked -he´s the only Nepali we know so far with such a big tummy- and Lima had swept the floor and lighted the stove in our dinning-room (a separate hut on the river bank).

Now, in the dinning-room drying clothes with Ono -the Malaysian singer-composer-painter-tattoo-piercing artist- and chatting about his trip and plans in Nepal. He and his guide, Dil, are going clockwise -that´s the usual way- we are going in the opposite direction -that´s the un-usual way- but Ono is carrying too much weight and wants to cut short his original trekking plan. Afterwards, he is taking a bus from Pokhara to Chitwan, to see the elephants...then, Kath and back to Penang (Malaysia) where he has a tattoo shop. He shows me his tattoed arms and believe me, it´s impressive...by now this sumdarit has been invited to Penang for a tattoing session...hmmm...why not? Already, made up my mind to have a nose piercing as Lima and Kanji and then, a tattoo: as S. said, at this pace we all are metamorphosed by the end of this trip!

Jos is up too -this guy is an early bird- so after breakfast, we should be ready to set off...wrong, we are not...time for pics...hang on, it takes a while: Lima and Kanji are grooming themselves, again, brushing their dark long hair; Eka is sharpening wooden sticks for us with his machete; Ono is setting a stand for the camera; Devindhra is searching for his...the rest of us are getting a nice tan under the sun whilst waiting for everyone...

Finally, after kissing, hugging, namaste-ing and shaking hands with each other we departed: Dil and Ono heading to Pokhara; Sonam, Purva and Jos with us upto Ghorepani and we sang goodbye, guess what? HK malayee!!!

After a half an hour walk, the trail became pretty difficult with snow but overall, with ice: I panic with ice, either when skiing or hiking...it´s hard to notice the snowy scenery, the ice stalactites and stalagmites over the river, the snow-ball fights...when you are on the verge of slipping off from 1600m! Sonam and Purva -naughty boys- are trying to cheer me up all the way, yelling sumdarit! didi! and singing HK malayee! Well, there is risk of avalanches over our heads...but...the heck with it, we all ended up singing HK malayee at the top of our voice!

We stopped singing for a while in a very difficult pass: we met a young Chinese couple, Mr.Huang and his spouse, from Shenzhen, they are having a hard time with the slippery track, so are we. The whole trail was a hell until we got near Ghorepani. In our way, we met quite a few trekkers going the opposite direction, that is, down: trekkers are usually well equipped with their poles but those porters, gosh, they are carrying loads and with no appropriate shoes nor poles...even so, we heard stories of trekkers crying when they realized what was lying ahead...it was suicide to do that way down and our guides agreed so.

C. and S. did extraordinarily well on the ice but this sumdarit was scared to death...just a hint of how I did: I went hand in hand with Purva the whole trail...yet, almost slipped off the track thrice and fell on my butt twice. Besides, in the difficult parts of the trail, these mischiveous Nepalis just pushed our bottoms and had a good taste of them, I dare to say. By now, we couldn´t care less, as this helped us from falling down but we are in the belief that Nepali guys have a pretty loose hand...

Dhaulagiri peak (8.172m) seen half-way to Ghorepani:

We got there by 5pm...look down on Ghorepani and its blue-coloured roofs:

That night, after a good dinner next to the stove, we sang HK malayee, again, drank raksi and Kukrum rum, again, and Sonam played naughty, again. There is a popular Nepali dish called "momos" which is pretty similar to Chinese steamed dumplings, well, we learned from Sunam -by chance- that "momos" can have a very different meaning...dirty minds..."momos" and "banana pancakes"...so, there you are a new song about "momos" from Sonam and as usual, he made us split our sides laughing...

In bed, C., S. and I were still discussing on the complexity of Nepali language and more in detail on the variety of meanings for "momos"...and nearly died with laughter that night...